Putin’s former speechwriter says a military coup is becoming a possibility in Russia
Croatia’s president criticizes West’s decision to send tanks to Ukraine
From CNN’s Josh Pennington and Alex Stambaugh
Croatian President Zoran Milanovic on Monday criticized moves by NATO allies to provide tanks to Ukraine, calling it “mad,” as he railed against Western support for Kyiv in repelling Russia’s nearly year-long invasion.
“I am against sending any lethal arms there. It prolongs the war,” Milanovic told reporters in the town of Petrinja.
“What is the goal? Disintegration of Russia, change of the government? There is also talk of tearing Russia apart. This is mad.”
Milanovic, leader of the European Union’s newest member nation, has repeatedly criticized the West’s involvement in the war.
Last week, he reiterated his position that “Russia is settling accounts with the Americans via Ukraine,” and that the war would be resolved between Washington and Moscow, CNN affiliate N1 reported.
His comments came after the United States and NATO allies including Germany last week said they would send modern tanks to Ukraine, unleashing powerful new tools in Kyiv’s efforts to retake territory seized by Moscow.
In his defense as to why Zagreb would not provide military aid to Kyiv, Milanovic condemned Germany’s decision to donate Leopard 2 tanks, telling reporters Monday: “German tanks in Russia — good luck with that.”
Crimea claim: Despite Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky’s stated aim of returning Crimea to Kyiv’s rule, Milanovic also said the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014 would remain part of Russia.
“It is clear that Crimea will never again be part of Ukraine,” he claimed.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister foresees end to nuclear arms control with US in 2026
From CNN’s Jonny Hallam and Josh Pennington
The last remaining element of a bilateral nuclear arms control treaty between Russia and the United States could expire in three years without a replacement, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told state news agency RIA Novosti on Monday.
Asked if Moscow could envisage there being no nuclear arms control agreement between the two nations when the extension of the 2011 New START Treaty comes to an end after 2026, Ryabkov said: “This is a very possible scenario.”
“The dialogue on strategic stability and arms control was stopped not by us, but by the Americans and their satellites,” he said, appearing to refer to Ukraine.
Ryabkov added that he believed Washington was betting on Moscow suffering a “strategic defeat” in its war with its neighbor, which is approaching the one-year mark.
Last week, the United States and NATO allies including Germany and the United Kingdom said they would send modern tanks to Ukraine, reversing their longstanding trepidation at providing Kyiv with offensive armored vehicles and unleashing powerful new tools in its efforts to retake territory seized by Moscow.
In his comments Monday, Ryabkov told RIA that recent US actions had violated the spirit of the bilateral arms control treaty in the “most flagrant and ridiculous way.”
Quoting from the preamble of the 2011 treaty, which calls for “mutual trust, openness, predictability and cooperation,” Ryabkov claimed the US showed a disregard for the agreement by holding a “forwardly aggressive deterrence, teetering on the brink of a direct confrontation between the United States and NATO and Russia.”
“The entire security situation, including arms control, has been held hostage by the line taken by the US to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia,” Ryabkov said.
Putin’s former speechwriter says a military coup is becoming a possibility in Russia
From CNN’s Mitchell McCluskey
A military coup is becoming a possibility in Russia as the war in Ukraine continues, President Vladimir Putin’s former speechwriter said Monday.
Speaking to CNN’s Erin Burnett, speechwriter turned political analyst Abbas Gallyamov said that as Russian losses mount in Ukraine and the country experiences hardship brought by Western sanctions, Russians will look for someone to blame.
“The Russian economy is deteriorating. The war is lost. There are more and more dead bodies returning to Russia, so Russians will be coming across more difficulties and they’ll be trying to find explanation why this is happening, looking around to the political process and they’ll be answering themselves: ‘Well, this is because our country is governed by an old tyrant, an old dictator,'” Gallyamov said, referring to Putin.
“At this moment, I think a military coup will become possible.”
That moment may come in the next 12 months, he said.
“So in one year when the political situation changes and there’s a really hated unpopular president at the head of the country and the war is really unpopular, and they need to shed blood for this, at this moment, a coup becomes a real possibility,” he added.
Gallyamov also said he believes Putin may cancel presidential elections scheduled to be held in March 2024.
“Judging by his actions, when he is escalating on something without necessity, he might really cancel the elections. Without victory over Ukraine, he’ll face difficulty with the Russians. Russians don’t need him if he’s not strong. He might really declare the martial law and cancel the elections,” Gallyamov said.
“They shot them in front of everyone”: Former Wagner commander describes frontline brutality
From CNN’s Muhammad Darwish, Katharina Krebs and Tara John
A former Wagner mercenary says the brutality he witnessed in Ukraine ultimately pushed him to defect, in an exclusive CNN interview on Monday.
Wagner fighters were often sent into battle with little direction, and the company’s treatment of reluctant recruits was ruthless, Andrei Medvedev told CNN’s Anderson Cooper from Norway’s capital Oslo, where he is seeking asylum after crossing that country’s arctic border from Russia.
“They would round up those who did not want to fight and shoot them in front of newcomers,” he alleges. “They brought two prisoners who refused to go fight and they shot them in front of everyone and buried them right in the trenches that were dug by the trainees.”
CNN has not been able to independently verify his account and Wagner has not replied to a request for comment.
The 26-year-old, who says he previously served in the Russian military, joined Wagner as a volunteer. He crossed into Ukraine less than 10 days after signing his contract in July 2021, serving near Bakhmut, the frontline city in the Donetsk region. The mercenary group has emerged as a key player in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Medvedev said he reported directly to the group’s founders, Dmitry Utkin and Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin.
He refers to Prigozhin as “the devil.” If he was a Russian hero, he would have taken a gun and run with the soldiers,” Medvedev said.
Read more:
White House defends decision not to send fighter jets to Ukraine
From CNN’s DJ Judd
White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby on Monday defended the Biden administration’s decision not to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, pointing instead to the aid the US is providing, including Abrams tanks.
“What I can tell you is that there’s a lot of capability that is being sent, and will be sent in the coming weeks and months,” Kirby told CNN. “The kinds of capabilities that we know will be critical to helping Ukrainians again in the fighting now in the wintertime, as well as the kind of fighting that we expect that they’re going to be doing in the spring.”
Kirby said he believes the decision,announced last week, to send Abrams tanks to the region wasn’t one that was made too late, even amid reports of Russia gaining territory in eastern Ukraine.
“The decision on the tanks — and it wasn’t just the US, it was the Germans as well, and the Brits before that — was really designed to help Ukraine get ahead of the fighting that we think … everybody’s going to see come spring,” he said. “So, this was actually one of those cases where we are trying to forecast the kinds of needs that Ukraine is going to require when the weather turns better — and we can expect that the Russians will try to go on the offensive then.”
Some background: President Joe Biden answered, “No,” when asked by a reporter whether he would send the jets to Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has sought fighter jets to help sustain his war effort against Russia. Biden has consistently said the planes aren’t on the table, even as he has given aid in other areas.
Russian couple arrested for anti-war conversation in restaurant, monitoring group says
From CNN’s Uliana Pavlova
A married couple in the southwestern Russian city of Krasnodar was arrested Sunday for professing anti-war sentiments during a private conversation in a restaurant, according to the independent Russian monitoring group OVD-Info.
OVD-Info told CNN that Aleksey Ovchinnikov was sentenced to 15 days in prison for petty hooliganism and his wife, Olesya Ovchinnikova, received a 1,000 rubles ($14) fine.
Olesya Ovchinnikova is also facing charges for discrediting the Russian army, according to reporting from local media 93.RU, citing her lawyer.
CNN has sought comment from the couple’s lawyer. The restaurant where the incident is said to have taken place, “Na Drovoh,” would not comment to CNN.
Crackdown on anti-war sentiments: OVD-Info said at least 61 cases related to expressing anti-war views were initiated in Russia in 2022 on the charges of justification of terrorism on the internet, with 26 leading to sentencing so far.
In another notable case, 19-year-old Olesya Krivtsova was charged over social media posts that authorities say discredit the Russian army and justify terrorism. She posted an Instagram story about the explosion on the Crimean bridge in October that also criticized Russia for invading Ukraine, according to Russian officials.
Biden says he won’t send F16 jets to Ukraine
From CNN’s Kevin Liptak
US President Joe Biden said Monday he wouldn’t send American fighter jets to Ukraine, even as the United States ramps up military assistance in the form of artillery and tanks.
“No,” Biden said when asked by a reporter whether he would send F16 jets to Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has sought fighter jets to help sustain his war effort against Russia. Biden has consistently said the planes aren’t on the table, even as he has given aid in other areas.
Last week, for example, Biden announced he would send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, despite top US officials saying previously the heavy-duty vehicles were a poor fit for the country’s military.
Speaking on the White House South Lawn, Biden also said he wasn’t sure whether he would visit Europe next month for the first anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine.
In response to a separate question, Biden said he was planning to visit Poland, but wasn’t sure when.
CNN reported last week the White House was exploring the possibility of a Biden visit to Europe to mark 12 months since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Some background: Ukrainian leaders have renewed their appeals for Western fighter jets. “I sent a wish list card to Santa Claus last year, and fighter jets also [were] including in this wish list,” Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told CNN last week.
US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged Friday that Zelensky had asked for fighter jets. “We are constantly talking to the Ukrainians about their needs, and want to make sure that we’re doing the best we can to meet them — and if we can’t, that some of our allies and partners can,” Kirby said.
Hidden in the forest, Ukraine’s drone operators are crucial to the eastern battle
From CNN’s Tim Lister, Frederik Pleitgen and Konstantin Hak near Kreminna, Ukraine
The pine forests near the city of Kreminna have become one of the hottest combat zones in the war in eastern Ukraine. Almost every weapon seems to be at work here, artillery, howitzers, tanks and mortars. But perhaps the most important is the smallest: The reconnaissance drone.
Ukrainian and Russian forces have been fighting here for nearly two months. If the Ukrainians can break through Russian lines and reach Kreminna, they can disrupt Russian supply routes.
But it’s a much tougher proposition than it was at the end of last year. Russia’s defensive lines have been reinforced with heavy weapons and long-range artillery.
CNN accompanied two Ukrainian drone operators from the Dnipro-1 battalion deep into the forest to see how they operate. The journey was along tracks of soft sand amid a thin canopy of pine trees, through an eerie landscape dotted with streams and bogs.
Read the full story here.
France and Australia announce joint production of artillery shells for Ukraine
From CNN’s Pierre Bairin and Marguerite Lacroix
France and Australia said Monday they would collaborate on a multi-million dollar project to produce “several thousand” artillery shells for Ukraine.
The announcement came as foreign and defense ministers of both countries met in Paris.
“Several thousand 155-millimeter shells are going to be manufactured in common, with an unprecedented partnership between Australia and France,” French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu told a news conference.
Lecornu said French arms company Nexter would partner with Australian companies, which would provide the powder for the shells.
“This forms part of the ongoing level of support that both France and Australia is providing Ukraine to make sure that Ukraine is able to stay in this conflict and be able to see it concluded on its own terms,” Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said.
Neither minister would specify quantities beyond “several thousand” artillery shells but they indicated this would be a long-term collaboration.
More on artillery to Ukraine: CNN reported in early January that the United States had moved some of the 300,000 155-millimeter shells the US and Israel agreed would be transferred to Ukraine. In November, a US official told CNN the US intended to buy 100,000 rounds of artillery ammunition from South Korean arms manufacturers to provide to Kyiv.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-1-31-23/index.html
